George Cornell Shooting
The day following the shooting of Richard Hart at Mr. Smiths, George Cornell visited one of the gang members who had been injured in the shooting, who was being treated at Whitechapel Hospital. Afterwards, along with his friend and associate Albie Woods, Cornell went to the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel, a location already famous as being the site of the sermon which led to the creation of the Salvation Army. The Krays lived just a short distance from the site.
Cornell and Woods stayed at the bar in the pub until just after eight in the evening, when Ronnie Kray and his associate Ian Barrie came into the Blind Beggar. They had been at another neighborhood pub when Kray was informed that Cornell was nearby, and Kray had his regular driver and bodyguard, John Dickson, take him to the Blind Beggar. As they walked into the pub, Barrie drew his pistol and fired up to five shots into the ceiling as a warning to the bartender and other patrons, who quickly sought shelter. According to witnesses, who later refused to testify, Cornell was slow to react.
Others later said that Barrie did not fire into the ceiling until after Kray had shot Cornell, and did so then as a warning of what would happen if anyone talked to the police. Supposedly Cornell got up from his stool upon seeing Kray and remarked, “So, look who’s here,” or words to that effect, before Kray drew a pistol and shot him once, in the head, in full view of the patrons and the bartender. Kray then turned and walked out with Barrie following him. Whichever version is correct, Cornell died the next day at around three in the morning, without ever regaining consciousness.
Within a short time following the shooting members of the Firm were visiting witnesses and the staff at the Blind Beggar. Kray was held briefly, but in the absence of any witnesses willing to testify could not be charged with the crime. Years later a businessman who claimed to be present in the Blind Beggar during the shooting stated that Cornell had said, “Well look at what the dog’s dragged in,” to Kray and the room in general just before Kray shot him.
The shootout at Mr. Smiths and the subsequent violence at the Blind Beggar was the beginning of the end for the Richardson gang, but did little immediate harm to the Kray’s, who took the opportunity to expand their criminal operations into their rival’s territory in southeast London. It was later asserted that Ronnie Kray was already suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the killing. In 1968 he was finally charged with the murder of George Cornell, and part of his defense was his mental state at the time of the murder.